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Social Networking Sites for high school students with Autism

Social Networking Sites for high school students with Autism

Kathy Hoover, High school special education English and reading teacher in Whittier CA

Posted 06/20/2010 1:14PM | Last Commented 06/11/2014 7:01PM

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Hi I am a High School teacher, and I have several students with mild to moderate autism. One of the parents is asking about social networking sites for teens with autism. Does anyone know of such an animal? They want to have their son increase social skills and remain in a safe environment.

I just did a thesis on this and I am in the process of getting the site up and populated. However, job hunting is slowing the project. Take a look at www.billboudreaux.org for info. the network is called Ability Pages and is a myspace type network for people with disabilities. But, it is accessible only by invitation through special education and is monitored by teachers and parents for safety. It got overwhelmingly positive response in the needs research stage but very few suggestions for implementation.

Depending on their cognitive level, some students might enjoy social networking sites intended for a younger age group such as Habbo (www.habbo.com) or Club Penguin (www.clubpenguin.com), both of which are heavily monitored and inappropriate content is filtered out. Habbo is aimed mainly at middle school age, while Club Penguin is more for elementary students.